AZORES REHABILITATION AND RECONSTRUCTION II

The Office of Reconstruction Support (GAR) will implement the project, a follow-on to Project 1500019. The complex will be located on a 9.9 hectare site bought and prepared by the RGA in Terra Cha. This is 3 miles from Angra do Heroismo, the location of many of the destroyed rental properties. A seismic analysis conducted by the University of Angra"s Center for Applied Geology has determined this area to be a relatively safe distance from two minor faults classified as "potentially active." The complex will include a recreation center, two commercial centers, and, at a future date, one or two schools. Asphalt access roads will be constructed on a 10-inch rock base. Construcoes Acoreanas, Limitada (CASA) will build the 255 units -- 47 two-bedrooms, 168 three-bedrooms, and 40 four-bedrooms -- at an average cost of $26,000. The one-story, prefabricated concrete units will be of sturdy (30 year life) interlocking, concrete sandwich panel, aseismic construction to meet Portugal"s strictest housing standards. Facilities will include bathroom (toilet, basin, bidet, tub), kitchen, hot/cold running water, electric outlets, carpeted living room and bedroom(s), cement roof, sand paint exterior, and fenced-in garden. Public utilities such as 400-cubic meter two-cell water tanks, underground storm drainage, and asbestos cement septic tanks or common sewer lines will be provided. CASA and its Portuguese parent company, Lopes, LDA., will oversee actual construction management. Upon completion of the housing complex, administration, rent collection, and other management duties will be transferred to the new Municipality of Angra do Heroismo. Principal beneficiaries will be the 1,300 displaced Azoreans on Terceira Island provided permanent housing.